


A Cautionary Tale

by Synchrony



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Fairy Tale Style, Gen, Horror, References to canonical events, mostly to Xehanort's plans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1571888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synchrony/pseuds/Synchrony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ventus survived his time with Master Xehanort— but for the first Ventus, the original Ventus, there was no happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cautionary Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the idea that if Ven is pure light and Vanitas is pure darkness, what happened to the original Ventus that was a combination of both? Cue playing around with the whole fairy tale theme. Which is quite a lot bleaker than it may sound.

Once upon a time there was a little boy called Ventus. Sometimes he was a good boy and sometimes he was bad. Sometimes he would share his toys and play nicely, and sometimes he wouldn’t. Sometimes he would remember to say _please_ and _thank you_ and not to snatch or pull faces, and sometimes he wouldn’t. Sometimes he would wash his hands and brush his teeth, and look both ways before crossing the road, and, and, and... and sometimes, he wouldn’t.

He was a normal, ordinary little boy, just like a hundred thousand others, and he died just like a hundred thousand others too, when the wheel of Fate started turning too soon for them to escape.

-

The only difference was this: when Ventus died, another Ventus lived.

He didn’t push, or tease, or hurt people. He was good.

And Vanitas? He did all of those things and more. He was _bad_.

-

One morning a man had passed by the orphanage and had stopped to talk with Ventus. He’d told him all kinds of stories: epic adventures, daring battles, distant worlds. He’d told him that he’d taken a liking to him, and would Ventus like to come with him, to learn from him, become a hero like him?

And Ventus, with all the logic of a child who’d been told off just that morning and had already wandered further from the gardens than he was meant to and was probably facing trouble when he _did_ get back, had figured _well, no one would miss me_ and happily followed the stranger far away.

-

Ventus lived. Ventus lived in two bodies: one light, one dark, two separate existences.

If one wanted to be optimistic, maybe they would even call it twice the life he’d had before.

It was no life. It wasn’t even death.

-

He hadn’t looked back as he’d followed his new Master away. He never even spared his homeworld, or the orphanage, or anyone there another thought throughout all the training and learning.

It was only when the darkness was closing in, parched wasteland beneath his hands and his chest and his face, choking on the dust in his mouth, that he wished he’d never left home in the first place.

-

When Ventus died, another Ventus lived: a good, pure Ventus.

He wasn’t him.

When Ventus died, Vanitas was born: an evil, wicked Ventus.

He wasn’t him either.

Ventus, the real Ventus, was gone forever: alone, forgotten, un-mourned.

This was reality, and nothing waited for those who slipped into the wrong choice but nothingness itself.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr](http://synchronyshattered.tumblr.com/) for more ramblings.


End file.
